Sanyo bungs 23x optical zoom into Xacti DMX-SH11, Full HD into DMX-CG110

Ever tried operating a handheld cam at 20x optical zoom? Without a tripod, your recordings tend to look like they were taken in the middle of an earthquake, so quite frankly, we ain't so wildly impressed with Sanyo's 23x-rated SH11 camcorder -- okay, we are, but we thought we'd inform you that that silly large number comes with limited use scenarios. Freshly announced, carrying 16GB of internal storage, and coming to Japan in late April, this is part of Sanyo's Dual Camera series, as its CMOS sensor is capable of 4 megapixel stills as well as 1080i / 30fps video in MPEG-4 format. It'll be joined there by the pistol grip-shaped CG110, which improves on the previous CGs by moving up to Full HD recording, adding 16GB of built-in storage, and even supporting SDXC cards. Check the source links for more.

Sanyo Xacti DMX-SH11 and DMX-CG110

[abulkasam Posted Jan 27th 2010 7:17AM]

Earthquake joke - too soon?

[Kiwi Posted Jan 27th 2010 8:27AM]

@abulkasam

Nah,

[weeliano Posted Jan 27th 2010 7:56AM]

I'm all for Optical zoom, sure beats Digital zoom. I guess you could weigh the camera down to get steadier shots. Or just use Johnny Chung's poor man's steady cam rig.

[piercem Posted Jan 27th 2010 1:53PM]

@weeliano
i built one of those and it actually works well...so yeah, just thought i'd share that haha

[Dustin F Posted Jan 27th 2010 8:43AM]

Get a tripod. They aren't expensive. 23X zoom is very practical sometimes.

I have 100x digital zoom and it's stupid. Optical zoom this good is awesome. No, you can't use it while standing on your motorcycle, but when the old lady's PI wants to catch me cheating on her and she can only shoot from the parking lot to the small window at the Motel 6? Optical Zoom baby.

[Dustin F Posted Jan 27th 2010 8:48AM]

Get a tripod. They aren't expensive. 23X zoom is very practical sometimes.

I have 100x digital zoom and it's stupid. Optical zoom this good is awesome. No, you can't use it while standing on your motorcycle, but when the old lady's PI wants to catch me cheating on her and she can only shoot from the parking lot to the small window at the Motel 6? Optical Zoom baby.

[SeanMW Posted Jan 27th 2010 11:35AM]

I have a VPC-CG10 ‘Xacti’ (looks the same as the new hand grip one) and I must admit it looks a bit odd on a tripod. Can you use any video camera with a zoom like that and not have it look all shaky. The video quality is great with good lighting not so good in low light and if you pan quickly I have found the image gets a bit fuzzy but I think that's a problem with all CMOS HD senors (or maybe the ones in low cost HD cams) but over all I love the camera I have, but the built in storage and zoom on thins one if the price is good I might have to upgrade and let the kids have the older one.

[tenazrael Posted Jan 27th 2010 12:06PM]

... sigh ...

So any news on an update to the Sanyo HD2000(a)? They better offer something and it better offer both 1080p60 and 720p60.

[GrokSurf Posted Jan 27th 2010 12:08PM]

Rant: unfortunately, just like most other consumer-price-range HD camcorders with at least 20x optical zoom, there's no viewfinder on this Xacti. I don't care what they say about LCDs, good quality composition, especially outdoors in the sun, is not possible without a viewfinder. I still haven't yet found an HD camcorder with 30x or higher optical zoom with a viewfinder, which I would buy in a second if I could. Extended rant: another thing I can't figure out is why the more expensive an HD camcorder is, the less likely it is to have over 10x optical zoom?

[JDM Posted Jan 27th 2010 12:37PM]

So then use a tripod or monopod if you're going to zoom to full tele. That doesn't mean large zoom factors are worthless.

It would be nice if handhelds went wider, but there are usually sacrifices there too.

[custom cables Posted Jan 27th 2010 1:59PM]

http://www.euronetwork.co.uk

[custom cables Posted Jan 27th 2010 2:05PM]

DOH, skipped the whole comment except the link... as i was saying, is it going to be compatible with the new hmdi 1.4? is there a difference? i bought a new hd cable from the above and was concerned that id have to upgrade AGAIN! to get the best from these new range of hd camcorders...

[itechnewsnet Posted Jan 28th 2010 10:32AM]

Actually Sanyo DMX-SH11 = Sanyo VPC-SH1
DMX-SH11 is just model name used in Japan